Indian confinement recipes (part 2)

Bored of cooking traditional Chinese Confinement food? Try whipping up some Indian confinement food.

#1 Garlic Rasam

A staple diet amongst Indians, this traditional appetiser is a panacea for many an ill, be it a nagging cold or a bout of fever. It also makes great confinement food.

What you need:

Small tamarind (extract water out of it)

Garlic 5-6 pods

Pepper 1/2 teaspoon

Red chillies 2-3

Salt as per taste

For seasoning - Mustard, Jeera (cumin), Curry leaves, Ghee

What you do:

Take out the extract of tamarind and make into one glass of water. In that water add salt and boil it till raw smell of tamarind goes.

Meanwhile, in a mixer grind garlic, pepper and red chillies together like a paste.

Once the tamarind water is boiled add the ground paste to it and add some more water to the required quantity.

Once it is boiled, season with the ingredients in ghee.

Serve hot with rice.

#2 Red Lentil Dahl

Red Lentils are nutritionally dense foods, a good source of iron and contain both soluble and insoluble fiber.

What you need

3 tablespoons peanut oil

1 medium yellow onion

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup dried red lentils

2 tablespoon tomato paste

4-5 cups water or veg broth

5 plum tomatoes, chopped

juice of 1 lime

1 cup lightly packed chopped fresh cilantro

Spice blend

2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

6 whole cloves

4 cardamom pods

2 dried red chilis (seeds removed)

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

What you do

In a saute pan over medium heat, toast the seeds (but not the dried red chili) for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from pan and let cool.

Transfer to coffee grinder, along with the dried red chili and cinnamon, and grind to a fine powder.

Over medium-high heat oil a soup pot, add onions and sauté for 5 minutes. Add garlic and ginger and sauté 5 more minutes. Add spices and salt, sauté 5 minutes more.

Add 4 cups of water and stir to deglaze the pot. Add tomato paste and lentils. Bring to a boil then lower the heat a bit and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, lime juice and cilantro and more water if it looks to thick. Simmer 10 more minutes, or until lentils are completely tender.

Serve.

#3 Gujarati Tuvar Dahl

This healthy vegetarian dish is a great source of protein.

What you need:

2 cups toovar dahl (yellow lentils)

1 cup yam (suran), chopped 2 tablespoons peanuts

8 pieces cocum

soaked 1 tomato

chopped 50 grams jaggery (gur)

juice of 1/2 lemon 1 piece ginger,

diced 4 green chillies,

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder (haldi)

For the tempering

1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)

1/4 teaspoon fenugreek leaves (methi)

10 to 12 curry leaves

2 cloves 2 sticks cinnamon

1 bay leaf

2 small round red chillies (boriya)

1/2 teaspoon asafoetida (hing)

2 tablespoons ghee

1 tablespoon oil

salt to taste

For the garnish

4 tablespoons chopped coriander

What you do:

Wash and pressure cook the dahl in 4 cups of water. In another vessel, pressure cook the yam and peanuts. When the dahl is cooked, cool slightly and blend till it is smooth.

Prepare the tempering by heating the ghee and oil and adding the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf, red chillies and asafoetida.

Add 3 cups of water, the cocum, tomato, jaggery, lemon juice, ginger, green chilli, chilli powder and turmeric powder and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the dahl, yam pieces, peanuts, and salt and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

Serve hot, garnished with coriander.

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